Thursday, January 17, 2013

Free Skiing! at Eagle Point

It might be cold in the valleys, but up in the mountains of the Great Basin, it's almost balmy. If you consider about 30 degrees balmy! Anyway, Eagle Point Ski Resort near Beaver, Utah had free skiing this week, and a bunch of us went to take advantage of it.

Eagle Point Ski Resort began three years ago, after eight years of dormancy. In the 1970s and 80s, the area was originally developed as two separate ski resorts, Elk Meadows and Mount Holly. These eventually merged and ran until 2002, when the owners had financial troubles. See more history here.

It's base elevation is 9,100 feet and it has 1,500 feet of elevation change and 600 skiable acres. It's tucked into the scenic Tushar Mountains, 18 miles (by road) up Beaver Canyon. Because it's Utah's 14th ski resort and far from big population areas (3.5 hours from both Las Vegas and Salt Lake City), they are having some awesome deals to attract people. These include residents of Great Britain ski for free. Residents of California ski for free. Residents of Nevada ski free January 16, February 13, and March 13. And everyone skis free on Thursdays in January and February.

The free skiing is definitely working, as the seven of us had never been there before, and many of the people we met skiing hadn't either. All the condos at the ski resort were booked, and employees said the season was going well.

So when we rented skis (for quite a reasonable price) and started down the slopes, we kept looking around, wondering where everyone was. We had the slopes virtually to ourselves! The snow was great, the temperature comfortable, and hardly any wind. To top it all off, it was a fun group (we were having so much fun that we forgot to take a group photo).

Here I am with my friend Jenny. She hadn't been skiing in ten years, but did great!

We skiied and skiied till our muscles were sore. It was awesome. We'll definitely be going back-there are still several more slopes to try. To find out more, check out the Eagle Point website. And maybe I'll see you on the slopes!

3 comments:

No, Utah doesn't have a helmet law (not even for motorcycles). But most people skiing and snowboarding were wearing helmets because they're warm and protect your noggin'! (My husband got a concussion the first time he tried snowboarding and a helmet would have helped him a lot.)

About Me

Hi! I'm Gretchen, an ecologist, rancher's wife, mother, writer, and dreamer. I've lived and worked in three of the four North American deserts and visited the fourth. This blog is about what it's like to live in the rural high desert on a ranch, spending lots of time outdoors with kids, and our journey to live more sustainably. To learn more about the area, click here. If you'd like to contact me, leave a comment (I love comments!) or email me at desertsurvivor @ live.com.